Nuclear Meltdown.

AB 719, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore's bill to lift the moratorium on new nuclear power facilities in California, died a quick and ugly death in the Natural Resources Committee yesterday. The Committee voted 6-3, along party lines, to kill the bill.

DeVore deserves some credit for having the guts to even show up to this hearing given Committee Chair Loni Hancock's outright hostility to his bill. Hancock curtly cut off DeVore's opening remarks before the Committee, making it clear that the legislation was going nowhere fast.

DeVore is correct that nuclear is a viable energy alternative for California that will not contribute to global warming. Hancock and other nuclear detractors also are correct in pointing out that we need to figure out where and how to store spent nuclear fuel rods. Welcome to the Catch-22 of nuclear power.

So, evidently nuclear is off the table for now. So is coal, and, apparently, so is LNG. Solar and wind power are options but less commercially viable ones. That corner we're painting ourselves into is starting to get pretty tight...

Nuclear power plant bill dies -- committee chair cuts off author [San Francisco Chronicle]